September 4, 1994 | Michael Dorris, Michael Dorris is the author of "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" and "The Broken Cord." His second novel for young readers, "Guests," will be published this fall

Anthropologists generally agree that before the arrival of Europeans, California, as now, was the most heavily populated area of America north of the Rio Grande. There was no single dominant Native American nation--no League of the Iroquois or Huron Confederacy--but rather a mosaic of distinct and coexistent small cultures, each with its own language and tradition, religion and cosmology. From the Yurok in the north, whose social and economic systems were intricately entwined, to the tiny bands of kin-based bands in the south, indigenous California societies were as diverse as they were numerous, as creatively adaptive to their particular environments as they were artistically and philosophically experimental.

It cost more than $800 million to build, spans 340,000 square feet and will employ 2,000 full-time workers. It also carved a deep rift in Sonoma County's political landscape over the past decade, spurring legal action, acrimony and even some death threats. But on Tuesday morning, the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park opened its doors an hour ahead of schedule to a screaming crowd of thousands. With that, one of the largest casinos in the state -- and among the largest tribal gaming operations in the nation -- kicked into gear, swamping roadways as thousands of Bay Area motorists headed north.

'Dam Hetch Hetchy? As well dam ... the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man!' -- John Muir * On DEC. 19, 1913, THE HETCH HETCHY VALLEY disappeared. With the stroke of a pen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Congressional bill that authorized the construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam. Ten years later, the Hetch Hetchy -- 7 miles long and up to 1 mile wide, Yosemite's northern twin -- started to flood.

It cost more than $800 million to build, spans 340,000 square feet and will employ 2,000 full-time workers. It also carved a deep rift in Sonoma County's political landscape over the past decade, spurring legal action, acrimony and even some death threats. But on Tuesday morning, the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park opened its doors an hour ahead of schedule to a screaming crowd of thousands. With that, one of the largest casinos in the state -- and among the largest tribal gaming operations in the nation -- kicked into gear, swamping roadways as thousands of Bay Area motorists headed north.

'Dam Hetch Hetchy? As well dam ... the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man!' -- John Muir * On DEC. 19, 1913, THE HETCH HETCHY VALLEY disappeared. With the stroke of a pen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Congressional bill that authorized the construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam. Ten years later, the Hetch Hetchy -- 7 miles long and up to 1 mile wide, Yosemite's northern twin -- started to flood.

May 9, 1999 | GREG SARRIS, Greg Sarris, a UCLA professor of English, is a screenwriter and author; his latest novel is "Watermelon Nights" (Hyperion)

Just before I left Santa Rosa, my hometown, for Los Angeles, my Auntie Anita told the following story, a version of which I'd heard from other tribal elders every time I moved to a new place: Once, while the people were camped along a creek some distance from the village, a man spotted a small deer, a doe, across the water. She was eating bark off a manzanita bush. It was late winter, the people down to their last rations of dried meat and acorns.

June 16, 1996 | Celeste Fremon, Celeste Fremon's last piece for the magazine was on Sandra Jensen, who fought to receive a heart-lung transplant after being turned down because she has Down syndrome

"Listen: A man with no family has no history and no eyes to see the future. He goes about blind." --Tom Smith, last known Coast Miwok medicine man and dreamer, 1898 * On a coolish morning in the late spring of 1992, Rita Carrillo sat at her kitchen table and stared at the local morning paper. "Hey, Dule!" she called out to her sister Dula. "Come and look at this!"

Re "Tribe's Plans for a Casino Shake Up Sonoma County," June 11: Miwok Chief Greg Sarris seriously misrepresents the proposed casino's impact on San Francisco Bay. It will effectively prevent the planned restoration of at least 3,000 acres of wetlands in the North Bay. The casino site is in the heart of an undeveloped area zoned as open space and sensitive environment. The site was part of the historic tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay. A consortium of government wildlife agencies and business and environmental organizations working to restore those wetlands has voted to oppose the casino because of its devastating effect.

Authors book tips for O.J. jurors: Steve Erickson, "Arc d'X". "Light in August," by William Faulkner. It is about a man who literally does not know if he's white or black, and is made so mad and monstrous by this that he's driven to murdering the woman he loves, or for whom he feels the closest thing to love that he's capable of feeling. Carolyn See, "Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America": All the chandler, Hammett, James M. Cain and T.

May 9, 1999 | GREG SARRIS, Greg Sarris, a UCLA professor of English, is a screenwriter and author; his latest novel is "Watermelon Nights" (Hyperion)

Just before I left Santa Rosa, my hometown, for Los Angeles, my Auntie Anita told the following story, a version of which I'd heard from other tribal elders every time I moved to a new place: Once, while the people were camped along a creek some distance from the village, a man spotted a small deer, a doe, across the water. She was eating bark off a manzanita bush. It was late winter, the people down to their last rations of dried meat and acorns.

June 16, 1996 | Celeste Fremon, Celeste Fremon's last piece for the magazine was on Sandra Jensen, who fought to receive a heart-lung transplant after being turned down because she has Down syndrome

"Listen: A man with no family has no history and no eyes to see the future. He goes about blind." --Tom Smith, last known Coast Miwok medicine man and dreamer, 1898 * On a coolish morning in the late spring of 1992, Rita Carrillo sat at her kitchen table and stared at the local morning paper. "Hey, Dule!" she called out to her sister Dula. "Come and look at this!"

September 4, 1994 | Michael Dorris, Michael Dorris is the author of "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" and "The Broken Cord." His second novel for young readers, "Guests," will be published this fall

Anthropologists generally agree that before the arrival of Europeans, California, as now, was the most heavily populated area of America north of the Rio Grande. There was no single dominant Native American nation--no League of the Iroquois or Huron Confederacy--but rather a mosaic of distinct and coexistent small cultures, each with its own language and tradition, religion and cosmology. From the Yurok in the north, whose social and economic systems were intricately entwined, to the tiny bands of kin-based bands in the south, indigenous California societies were as diverse as they were numerous, as creatively adaptive to their particular environments as they were artistically and philosophically experimental.

The first Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held April 20 and 21 at UCLA's Dickson Plaza. Admission is free; parking at UCLA is $5. Times are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 20 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 21. A full schedule of events, ranging from author panels to children's book and poetry readings, will appear in a special section in The Times on Sunday, April 14.

"Grand Avenue" is a compelling story of Native American survival in polarized urban society. It reveals, in illuminating, compassionate fashion, what life is like beyond the endless middle-class platitudes that dominate most prime-time programming. It is television drama at its very best. The first small-screen project produced by Robert Redford, "Grand Avenue" is based upon the book of the same title, written and scripted by Greg Sarris.